Second studio album by the duo Method Man & Redman. Production is provided by Mathematics, Havoc, Pete Rock, Erick Sermon, Swiff D, Rockwilder, Nasty Kutt, Ty Fyffe, Reggie Noble, Buckwild, Vinny Idol, DJ Scratch, Bink, King David, Chris N Teeb. Guests are members of the Wu-Tang Clan Ghostface Killah & Raekwon, the Wu-affiliate Streetlife, as well as Saukrates, Keith Murray, Bun B, Tanisha Green, Michelle Pinckney, Erick Sermon, Ready Roc, DJ Kay Slay, C.O. Ellis, Pooh Bear and Melanie Rutherford.
Intro from a live, then jazzy boom bap by Mathematics, midtempo drum, melodic female soul sample, good delivery of the duo. "I'm Dope Nigga" has a tense boom bap production with downtempo drum and decent deliveries from the two rappers, not one of Havoc's best beats. The album seems to take a turning point when Pete Rock arrives behind the keyboards: great jazzy-funky boom bap for "A-Yo", cheerful and light-hearted beat with melodic female soul samples, tight lively drum, fresh samples, Method Man & Redman flow well and have fun, with Saukrates on the hook. Erick Sermon presents an interesting rhythm for "Dangerous Mcees": boom bap with thin and tight drum, samples of a few dark and gloomy piano keys. He should sound good, but he doesn't: Sermon's choice turns out to be cheap, mediocre and simplistic, Red & Meth spit well, barely saving a crooked and out of tune production.
Track number five is an attempt to club banger performed by Swiff D: boom bap dark, annoying, alternative, Keith Murray is as smooth as forgettable, the other two are decent. Rockwilder tries to write history again with a banger attempt in "Hey Zulu": skeletal and annoying boom bap, destined for the club, with poor sample and tight southern drum, good delivery of the duo, which is helped by an autotune hook performed by Redman together with the pop singer Poo Bear. On the hook, there's a synthesized piano reminiscent of Nas & Lauryn Hill's "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)". "City Lights" is yet another attempt to sell the LP in discos: annoying, gloomy, badly synthesized boom bap by Nasty Kutt. Bun B has a slow flow, looks good, then decides to deliver with autotune. A poor, nerve-wracking hook follows, before the bars lazily spat out by the East Coast duo (Red has more energy than his friend).
Ty Fyffe places an honest jazzy boom bap on "Father's Day", hopping, decent, with relaxed samples and a drum machine that doesn't hurt: it's an ideal carpet for Meth & Red, but the MC of the Wu-Tang Clan fails to put energy on the words he speaks. There's an amazing bridge on the hook, this soundscape was supposed to lead to a classic cut, sadly it isn't, despite Redman's best efforts. The New Jersey rapper credits himself for the rhythm (which isn't there) in the following skit, then Buckwild produces "Mrs. International": amazing jazzy soundscape from DITC member, easily the best rhythm on the record, fantastic. Relaxed boom bap, quiet samples, slow skinny drum, relaxed delivery by Johnny Blaze, Redman on the same level, the only moot thing is Erick Sermon on the hook, but he doesn't spoil a classic tune.
"How Bout Dat" confirms the annoying inconsistency of this project: Vinny Idol brings out a bad and wacky beat, badly synthesized, Meth, Red and Streetlife deliver more or less worthily (less well Ready Roc), but the beat is truly unlistenable. It sounds like DJ Khaled, there's a horrible random sample of synthesized piano keys combined with a sprawling and boisterous, hard and heavy drum machine. Only when stoned you can consider this as a good beat. "Dis Iz 4 All My Smokers" is a half-successful hymn to weed: DJ Scratch's boom bap is good, dark, jazzy, noir-mafia, deep, with a dominating violin in the background and a hard midtempo drum. Meth and Red bring some of their best flows and create a solid cut despite a messy and mediocre hook. Among other things, they could lengthen the song to 4:20 and, instead, they stop it three-four seconds earlier, curiously.
Reggie Noble is credited again for the skit, then comes the long-awaited Wu-Tang posse "Four Minutes to Lock Down": Bink's tense hardcore boom bap, with jazzy and melodic female soul samples both so tight that the rhythm becomes annoying. Good flow from Red, Lou Diamonds flows easily, follows Method Man, with a verse in freestyle, Tony Starks in the last verse with more energy than everyone else on this LP, he eats the beat. Erick Sermon produces "Neva Heard DIs B 4" and that's not a good thing: simplistic production, synthesized better than usual, but still annoying, hard and tight drum, ridiculous sample, Meth and Red do their best to make this piece accessible. In track number sixteen, beatmaker King David is confused: heavily poorly synthesized, annoying boom bap, with alternate bridge on the hook. Wacky, eccentric and boisterous drum, bad samples, discreet delivery of the duo. The last song is the latest banger attempt for the club, "A Lil Bit": Rockwilder & Chris N Teeb alternate, dark and annoying musical carpet, Melanie Rutherford hook, Meth & Red decent rap.
Originally scheduled to be released in 2008, the album was postponed several times, releasing the following year. It's the third LP of the duo, ten years after the prequel and after the soundtrack of the movie "How HIgh" (2001). Recorded while the two rappers are on tour, the record has a production made by 14 different people in 15 tracks (2 skits), making the music quite erratic. Erick Sermon and Rockwilder have both two rhythms, all the others provide a beat each: the music is a continuous attempt to make another "Da Rockwilder", which therefore turns out to be a stroke of luck, because no one here has succeeded. Most of all the lesser-known beatmakers try, of course, chasing the success, but they all fail with scarce and forgettable productions, from Swiff D to Nasty Kutt, from Vinny Idol to King David and Chris N Teeb. Even Bink disappoints in "Four Minutes to Lock Down" and Rockwilder himself fails to repeat the glories of the past with "Hey Zulu" and "A LIl Bit", while Sermon realizes two simplistic rhythms ("Dangerous Mcees" and "Neva Heard Dis B4") among the few cuts without guests, and almost ruins "Mrs. International", one of the few successful songs. Among the best, Mathematics, Buckwild, Ty Fyffe and Pete Rock, who manages to bring "A-Yo" in the charts, but not beyond the first hundred among the rnb tracks.
The rap of Redman & Method Man sounds worthy, even if it's not helped by a discontinuous production and made mainly for clubs. The duo doesn't sound as inspired as they used to, and here they seem to be simply trying to sell a few more copies. The album is a copy of the first chapter, with the same themes and the same flows, with much less energy: Red is committed, Meth isn't at the level of the past, and also from a lyrical and rapping point of view, the album disappoints. As in the previous record, there's a shortage of Wu soul which should be central to every Wu album: the production doesn't feature RZA and welcomes the affiliate Mathematics, while the rap are Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and the affiliate Streetlife. Keith Murray, Bun B and Roc Ready are the only other guests at rap, while all the other guys are singers.
Released by Def Jam, the album is a commercial and critical success: it comes second on rap records, seventh on the pop chart and is inexplicably praised by professional reviewers. Little really works in these 17 tracks and 58 minutes, most of the time the record doesn't sound good and fails in its intent to break through the charts: three singles are extracted, the best is "A-Yo" which stops much earlier than expected in the rnb chart. Decent and fun party album, not recommended.
Highlights: "BO2 (Intro)", "A-Yo", "Father's Day", "Mrs. International", "DIs Iz 4 All My Smokers", "Four Minutes to Lock Down".
Rating: 6/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment